Overview
Asthma prevalence in Puerto Rican and African American children is about double that of European and Mexican American children. However, Mexican Americans, along with African Americans and Puerto Ricans experience an excess of asthma-related symptoms, missed school days, and unplanned health care visits over their Caucasian counterparts. Variations in asthma prevalence and morbidity among subpopulations suggest it is a heterogeneous disease with varied risk profiles.
We must further evaluate these risks and the mechanisms by which they act in order to develop individualized, targeted therapies to improve asthma-related outcomes.
Our group is improving the accuracy and precision in which the assessment of genetic, social, and environmental influences impact asthma outcomes in different populations. We specialize in studying how the combined effect of genetic and environmental exposures (gene-environment interactions) increases asthma risk beyond what would be expected based on the individual exposures.
Study Populations
- Genetics of Asthma in Latino Americans (GALA I)
- Genes-environments and Admixture in Latino Americans (GALA II)
- Study of African Americans, Asthma, Genes, & Environments (SAGE)
- Puerto Rican Infant Metagenomic and Epidemiologic study of Respiratory Illnesses (PRIMERO)
learn more about our study populations
Areas of Focus

Genetics Research
Genetic research projects focus on identifying genetic risk factors and developing novel therapeutic targets for asthma. Our lab integrates multiple forms of -omics data such as whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data, RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data, genetic ancestry data, and epigenetic (methylation) data to discover genetic determinants of asthma outcomes in the populations most affected by asthma.

Social Research
Social research projects examine the effects of social stressors to better understand how they influence disease and to identify which of these stressors can be changed to improve health. We have detailed information on socioeconomic status (SES), experiences of discrimination, and acculturation. Using participants' geocoded residential addresses since birth, we are also able to examine how neighborhood-level social stressors such as crime and poverty influence asthma disease, lung function, and drug response.

Environmental Research
Environmental research projects identify populations at increased risk for asthma and find potential targets for public health interventions. We have a rich database of measures of early-life environmental exposures such as daycare attendance, prenatal and current smoke exposure, family structure, diet, as well as a complete history of air pollution exposure from birth using participants' geocoded residential addresses.